Reckless Redemption: A Bad Blooded Rebel Novel (Bad Blooded Rebel Series) (2 page)

I looked over and my eyes widened. This guy had to
be the hugest beast of a man I’d ever seen. He was tall, tan, and looked like a
solid wall of sheet rock in a tight black tee shirt and black pants. He looked
like he had to be ex-CIA or something.

I held my cell phone out for him and explained,
“It’s already set. You just have to push the button.” I looked over to
Everleigh, who was standing off to the side. I rolled my eyes and said, “Come
on, Ev, get in the picture.”

She moved closer to Ryder but apparently that wasn’t
close enough for him because he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to his other
side and up against him. I fought back a chuckle, knowing she was probably just
as affected by him as I was by Beau in that moment. At least I could admit I
was turned on.

“All right, everyone ready?” the guy in the black
shirt asked. “Everyone smile on three.”

We all smiled and I felt Beau’s fingers flex against
the small of my back. I fought back a groan…holy shit he smelled good.

Jude laughed and said, “Okay, maybe we should take
one more picture. This time maybe everyone could actually look at the camera.”
I looked over to Everleigh and Ryder and found them gazing into each other’s
eyes like they were going to make out any second. Everyone got ready and we
took another picture, this time with everyone smiling.

 We all broke apart but Beau kept his hand on my
lower back. I looked up at him and I melted into a puddle as our eyes locked.

“So, Danni,” he said, “do you and your friend have
plans after this?”

Struggling to keep my wits about me, I answered,
“No, we were going to drive home.”

“Awesome,” he said, grinning at me. “Since tonight
was our last stop on this tour, I am throwing a party at my house. You think
you can convince your friend to come and hang for a bit?”

I blinked a few times and stuttered, “A-are you
serious?”

Not only had I gotten to meet my favorite band ever,
one of sexiest men on the planet had asked me to come to a party at his house.

Beau cocked his head to the side. “Hell yes I’m
serious. I think you girls would have a good time. Music, food, hot tub,” he
said, and I shivered as his hand moved lower to rest right above my ass. “What
do you think?”

“Let me go ask what she thinks,” I answered, smiling
at him. I turned and walked to Everleigh with Beau following close behind me.
My head was spinning from his closeness and the scent of his cologne. When we
reached her, Everleigh looked pissed as hell.

“Hey Ev, you okay?”

Everleigh blinked and looked at me. “Yeah, I’m fine.
Are you ready to go?” she asked, practically gritting her teeth.

“Um, well, Beau is having a party at his house and
he just asked if we wanted to come and hang out for a bit. What do you say?” I
asked her, hoping like hell she would agree. I’d never get another chance like
this again.

She shook her head and said, “Danni, we can’t. I
have to work in the morning and we have a long drive ahead of us.”

“You’re not from around here?” Ryder asked her.

She completely ignored Ryder. “No, we’re from
Indiana,” she said to Beau.

“And you drove all this way to see us?” Beau asked
me, gazing into my eyes as he trailed his fingers lightly down my arm.

I giggled like a little girl and said, “Oh, it’s no
big deal. We live in Muncie, so it’s only about a two hour drive from here.”

“Really?” Ryder asked Everleigh with interest.

Everleigh shot me a death glare and spat out,
“Really. Danni, seriously. We need to go.”

“Ev, come on. Just for a little bit?” I begged her,
sticking my lip out and pouting. I could have sworn I heard Beau groan and I
felt him shuffling his feet.

Everleigh moved close to me and said as quietly as
she could, “I can’t leave him alone for long, Danni. I need to get back.”

I nodded, disappointed but I understood. I turned to
Beau and said, “I know. You’re right. I’m sorry Beau, but I will have to take a
pass on the party.”

He cocked his head at me again and said, “Bummer. Here’s
your phone back sweetie.”

I took my phone back from him, our fingers touching
for just a moment before I put it in my back pocket. “Thanks.”

“It was nice meeting you Danni, Everleigh,” he said,
giving Ryder a nod.

“Nice to meet you too, Beau,” Everleigh said to him,
trying her hardest to ignore Ryder.

I smiled at how hard she was trying to hide that he’d
bothered her enough to look turned on.

We said our goodbyes to Kris and Jude before they
left to do their own thing. Once they were gone, Beau turned to me again and
said, “Hey, tag us in these pictures you took, okay? I’d like to see how they
turned out.”

He looked at Ryder for a second and smiled at him
before he looked back at me.

I flashed him my best “I want to make out with you”
smile and agreed, “Okay, Beau. Sure.”

I was about to say thank you and goodbye to him but
before I could, his head moved closer to me and he crushed his lips to mine.

My whole world stopped in that moment as Beau
Cavanaugh kissed me for the first time. I gasped in shock, unsure if I was just
imagining it or if it was real. Once he took charge and his tongue slid into my
mouth, I knew for sure I wasn’t dreaming and I melted into him. I felt tingles
all through my entire body and I had to ball my hands into fists to keep from
freaking out.

I decided then to take advantage of my amazing luck
and take charge of the kiss. If this was the one time I would ever get to kiss
him then I was going to make the most of it. I moved my hands up into his soft,
thick, wavy hair and combed through it with my fingers. He moaned into my mouth
and continued to kiss me like I was his favorite meal and he was starving.

I think we’d been making out for almost five minutes
before we finally broke apart. He pressed his forehead to mine and whispered,
“I really wish you could come to the party.”

I sighed and said, “Believe me, Beau, so do I.”

I moved reluctantly to where Everleigh was staring
at Ryder, seemingly trying to figure him out and asked her, “Do we really have
to head back?”

“Yes, we do. I have to open in the morning,” she
answered.

Shit, I totally forgot about that.

“Open?” Ryder asked me.

“Yeah, Ev and I are waitresses at a diner in town,”
I answered him, and Everleigh shot me a look. She seemed embarrassed that the
guys knew we were waitresses.

“You all right, gorgeous?” Ryder asked her, touching
her arm.

She glared at him and snapped, “I’m great. It was
nice to meet you guys, you put on a good show. Danni, I’ll wait for you in the
hall.”

Turning on her heels, she walked toward the exit
with Ryder following closely behind.

I looked back at Beau and smiled apologetically.
“Sorry, I tried. Guess it wasn’t meant to be, huh?”

His eyes burned with a deep passion and he said
cryptically, “Not tonight anyway.”

Before I could respond he interrupted. “Tag me in
these pictures, seriously. I do want to see them. You’re a fan on Facebook,
right?”

I smirked at him and said, “Well, duh.”

He smiled a sexy smile at me. “Good. Well, I’d
better let you go before your friend leaves without you. It was really nice to
meet you, Danni Sharpe.” My heart fluttered at the fact that he remembered my
last name.

“It was really nice to meet you too, Beau
Cavanaugh.”

“I will talk to you soon. Count on it,” he exclaimed,
and I nodded dumbly as he kissed my lips softly one last time. “Goodbye,
beautiful.”

He backed away from me with a smile on his insanely
handsome face. I was somehow able to force my legs to move and meet Everleigh
at the door where she was waiting for me. Thankfully she offered to drive us
home since I was currently not in any kind of state to be behind the wheel of a
car. Beau’s kiss had completely stolen my breath and knocked my world off its
axis. I really hoped he was right and that I would talk to him again soon. I
didn’t want to think about the fact that he might have just played me. Maybe I
was just another nameless, faceless girl. Banishing those thoughts so I
wouldn’t lose my love drunk buzz, I followed Everleigh out of the venue and to
my car.

“Hey!
Danni, wake up!”

I
heard a sharp rapping on my window that jolted me out of my daydream and back
to the present. I sat up quickly and looked out the window to see who was
calling my name. When my eyes landed on Everleigh, standing outside my car with
her hand shading her eyes from the sunlight, her huge wedding ring caught the
light and lit up her face. A lot had happened in everyone’s lives since that
first night we all met, but nothing more horrible than what happened to Everleigh
and Ryder. They had been through the worst kind of hell imaginable yet
thankfully they’d come out happy on the other side.

Three
months after the show in Cincinnati, Ryder had shown up in Muncie looking for
Everleigh. After a little reluctance from her, they jumped full force into a
relationship shortly before Everleigh’s dad passed away. Ryder was
amazing
during that time; he knew just how to help her get through it. He lost his own
father to cancer not long after Bad Blooded Rebel hit the big time so if anyone
knew how to take care of Everleigh when Max died it was him.

The
day of Max’s funeral Everleigh’s crazy ex-boyfriend, Scott Adams, showed up at
the wake and caused a scene. My parents raised me to never hate anyone, but
there is always an exception to every rule and Scott was
definitely
that
exception.

Everleigh
had dated him for a few months several years earlier and she lost her virginity
to him. The next day she confided in me that she felt like she’d made a
mistake, him to be patient and give her time before they slept together again. He
completely flipped out on her and dumped her right then and there. Besides
running into him once in a while, no one heard from him in three years.

When
the media caught wind of Ryder’s visit to Muncie, it was all over the news and
Everleigh’s face was constantly on television. People all over wanted to know
who she was and why a famous hot rocker like Ryder Matthews would be interested
in a small town girl like her. Scott of course texted her to ruffle her
feathers but after the incident at Max’s wake we all thought he’d finally back
off now that she had four big tattooed rockers and a hulk of a bodyguard protecting
her. How wrong we were.

When
all decided to hit up a club in town and the next night, Scott ambushed
Everleigh in the men’s room and tried to rape her. If Jessie Monroe, Kris
Engle’s fiancée, hadn’t seen Scott pull Everleigh into the bathroom no one
would have known what was happening. Ryder broke through the door just in time
and beat Scott’s ass pretty good before knocking him unconscious. After that,
everyone (except me) traveled to New York City where we thought Everleigh was
finally safe.

She
of course wasn’t, and shortly after I arrived in the city three weeks later
Scott murdered Max’s hospice nurse, Trisha Cramer, during a home invasion at
Everleigh’s house. He then showed up in New York City, sending Everleigh a
picture of Trish’s dead body. A week later he ambushed Ryder and abducted
Everleigh from a nightclub where we were celebrating Beau’s sister Sadie’s
twenty-first birthday.

Those
three hours that Everleigh was missing were the most terrifying moments of my
entire life. That girl is my sister in every way that counts and to not know
where she was, if she was in pain, or even if she was still alive was the worst
feeling I have ever felt. When she finally contacted Ryder and told us she’d
killed Scott in self-defense, my heart leapt with joy that she was okay, but it
was also broken and full of sadness for what she had to do to protect herself.
Everleigh is hands down the strongest and bravest woman I have ever known in my
life and if anyone deserves to have a happy ending it is my best friend.

She
and Ryder were married the day after her twenty-fifth birthday in Las Vegas,
and now a year later, we were all gathering at our favorite restaurant in
Cincinnati to celebrate their anniversary and her twenty-sixth birthday
together. A lot happened in the year since they were married, mostly between
Beau and myself, but I was determined not to let it get me down. Nothing was
going to distract me from celebrating my best friend’s birthday with my family.

I
smiled as I grabbed my sunglasses and tossed them into my purse. She stepped
back as I got out and locked up my car. “Hey Ev,” I said, pulling her into a
hug. “Happy birthday girl! Do you feel older?”